On the 29th of August 2024, I started the 100 Day Challenge.
What is the 100 Day Challenge, you ask? In layman’s terms, it’s 100 days of self-mastery, where I commit the next three and a bit months to practicing daily and weekly habits to become a beast.
Why put myself through this gauntlet?
A few weeks ago, I was listening to one of my favourite podcasts, the My First Million by Shaan and Sam. They asked MrBeast what his secret sauce was and how he became so dominant on YouTube. He replied sternly, “Do something for 100 days and try to make small improvements daily” His answer is wisdom packaged in twofold:
- Most people give up before they reach the 100-day mark (don’t be most people)
- Committing for 100 days is really hard. Along the way, you’ll realise your own magic.
I got juiced after hearing this!
Why can’t I be amazing? What’s holding me back from committing? The answer is simple: me.
I buckled up, did some introspection, and wrote down a few things.
I just got back from the Olympics mid August (more on that later, but for now, let’s ride this train). While at the Olympics, I experienced something amazing. I realised that my perception of my ceiling was actually a false ceiling.
What do I mean by that?
Let me explain. What I originally thought was my maximum output was really about 80% of my max. Experiencing and seeing something new expanded my overall capacity. This fired me up! Through this, my attitude changed as well—there would be no more playing victim. If you want things to change, you gotta make shit happen.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve trained harder than I have in a while, pushing my body and mind daily. This is the best shape I’ve been in since my college days (big call). Realising I had more to give made me hungry—hungry for more. More weights, more shots, more recovery. I feel there’s always more in the tank. My fuel capacity had gotten bigger.
After sitting down and writing down some goals that will help me physically and mentally, I came up with nine habits I want to either keep or add in the next 100 days:
- Meditation
- Visualisation
- Reading
- Stretch/Yoga/Rollout
- 30 sprint sessions (2 per week)
- 30 workout sessions outside of training
- 30 cold exposure sessions
- 15 mental coaching sessions
- 14 tennis sessions
The first four are self-explanatory. The benefits have been proven, and they really help in my daily process of self-mastery. The sprint sessions and extra workouts will keep me sharp. As the basketball season goes on, we tend to drop off on the extra sessions and turn to preservation mode. My game is based on being the best-conditioned athlete in the league. The extra sprinting sessions aren’t very long, but they’ll be crucial to peak physical performance.
Training hard means recovering harder. I’m not a fan of the cold, but I know how good it is for my body. Science says if you do something you find hard, your capacity grows. (Weird that we keep coming back to the word capacity, huh?)
I’ve been following this guy on IG for a couple of years now. He’s a mental coach and has some great stuff. One day, I messaged him off the cuff about potentially working together. Long story short (more in another blog), we’ve been working together recently. The content is amazing, and I feel it’s really helped elevate my game and who I am. So, the weekly Zoom calls are essential for my mental well-being.
Last but not least, the tennis sessions. Your boy grew up a huge Sharapova and Nadal fan. I watched a video with my partner not long ago, and it talked about how people who play racquet sports live longer. Not sure about the data, but heck, we’ll be a case study. We’ll circle back in 50 years. We bought a couple racquets, bought some balls, and we’re gonna go for a hit once a week. Simple, fun, and spend time together—win, win, and win.
As you can tell, I’m impulsive when it comes to trying new things. I love tinkering and being curious; it’s what fuels me. When you stop tinkering, you stop discovering. This 100 Day Challenge is gonna be a beast, but I’m up for it. Although I had a word of warning from Gabriel (my mental coach) when I couldn’t hold my excitement about telling him my challenge. He warned about not being too rigid and to have some self-compassion on the days I don’t complete my goals (which will happen). It’s about the response. How do you bounce back from adversity.
My gas tank capacity just grew recently, so it’s all systems go over here!